Bridging the Gaps: A Portal for Curious Minds

In his new book, "Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason" philosopher Justin Smith presents a fascinating narrative that reveals the ways in which the pursuit of rationality often leads to an explosion of irrationality. Smith, a professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris, acknowledges that we are living in an era when nothing seems to make sense. Populism is on the rise, pseudoscience is still around and there is no shortage of of conspiracy theories. Smith discusses the core of the problem that the rational gives birth to the irrational and vice versa in an endless cycle, and any effort to permanently set things in order sooner or later ends in an explosion of unreason. He notes that despite the fact logic and reason are well understood, methods and practises that were supposed to have been setup to counter irrationality, ended up mired in the very problem that they were meant to solve, and that is irrationality. "Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason" is rich and ambitious and ranges across philosophy, politics and current events. It challenges conventional thinking about logic, natural reason, dreams, art and science, pseudoscience, the Enlightenment, the internet, jokes and lies and death and shows how history reveals that any triumph of reason is temporary and reversible, and that rational schemes often result in their polar opposite. Smith argues that it is irrational to try to eliminate irrationality and describes irrationality an ineradicable feature of life. It has been an absolute pleasure speaking with Professor Justin Smith in this episode of Bridging the Gaps. This has been a fascinating conversation. For more high quality in-depth Bridging the Gaps discussions with researchers and thought leaders, reach us at: https://www.bridgingthegaps.ie/ https://soundcloud.com/bridging-the-gaps

Professor Toby Walsh is a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, and has spent his life dreaming about machines that might think. He is a Professor of AI at the University of New South Wales and leads a research group at Data61, Australia’s Centre of Excellence for ICT Research. In this episode of Bridging the Gaps Professor Toby Walsh discusses his latest book ““2062: The World That AI Made”. By 2062 there will be huge developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence and some researchers believe that by that time we will have built machines as intelligent as us. But what will this future actually look like? When the quest to build intelligent machines has been successful, how will life on this planet unfold? In 2062, Toby Walsh considers the impact AI will have on work, war, politics, economics, everyday human life and, indeed, human death. Will robots become conscious? Will automation take away jobs? Will we become immortal machines ourselves, uploading our brains to the cloud? What lies in store for homo digitalis – the people of the not-so-distant future who will be living among fully functioning artificial intelligence? In “2062: The World That AI Made” Professor Toby Walsh describes the choices we need to make today to ensure that future remains bright.

Adrienne Mayor is an author and historian of ancient science and human curiosity. She is a research scholar at Stanford University who investigates natural knowledge contained in pre-scientific myths and traditions. In this podcast Adrienne Mayor discusses the fascinating research that she presents in her book "Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines and Ancient Dreams of Technology". This is a captivating account of the earliest expressions of the enduring urge to create machines that imitate life. Adrienne Mayor presents ancient Greek, Roman, Indian and Chinese myths and traditions that envisioned artificial life, robots and self moving contraptions. It is interesting to observe that some of today's most advanced innovations in robotics and artificial intelligence were envisaged and imagined in ancient myths and traditions. After discussing a number of myths and traditions, Adrienne Mayor presents stories of a number of real machines and innovations that were developed long before the age of modern science and technology. This book is an account of ingenuity and creativity, and that how science has always been driven by imagination.

Origin of Human Emotions and Underlying Neurophysiological Functions with Professor Joseph LeDoux by Dr Waseem Akhtar

A History of the Concept of Genius from Antiquity to the Modern Time with Professor Darrin McMohan by Dr Waseem Akhtar

Memory Slips, Ageing and Strategies For Keeping Brain Healthy with Dr Gary Small by Dr Waseem Akhtar

Phoenix Mars Mission with NASA's Peter Smith by Dr Waseem Akhtar

False Memories, Misinformation Effect and Eyewitness Testimony: Professor Elizabeth Loftus by Dr Waseem Akhtar

Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age with Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger by Dr Waseem Akhtar

Human Consciousness is a fascinating research topic. Discussed previously in a number of Bridging the Gaps conversations, cutting edge research on consciousness – an ungrasped concept and an unsolved problem in science today – will keep appearing here at this Portal for Curious Minds. It is widely accepted that consciousness arises as an emergent property of the human mind. An important question is where does consciousness arise; does this arise from a single seat in the brain or is this a distributed phenomenon involving various interconnected parts and networks of the brain. Whatever is the answer to this question, most researchers relate this phenomenon with the working of human brain. Alva Noe – part philosopher, part cognitive scientist, part neuroscientist – restates and re-examines the problem of consciousness and proposes that we should abandon “200-year-old paradigm that places consciousness within the confines of the brain”. Alva Noe is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences and the Center of New Media. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1995. The focus of this conversation with Alva Noe is his book “Out of Our Heads: Why You are Not Your Brain and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness”. One of the main concepts that Alva Noe presents in this book is that consciousness does not happen in the brain and it is not located in our brains; he suggests that rather than being something that happens inside us, consciousness is something we do. In this conversation we discuss in detail this “fresh attempt at understanding our minds and how we interact with the world around us”.